Front Cover, Back Cover, And Spine Artwork:

Book Description: “The First Incredible Adventures Of The Girl With No Shoes” is Part 38 of The Book Of Benjamin Kareth. This is a fictional story that follows Anne, the girl with no shoes, as she travels to a mysterious world through a pond to help a king and queen fight away the darkness that is threatening the seven realms. This is part one of a seven part series.

A Glimpse Inside:

Chapter 2: The Carriage Ride

Anna swung her tiny, bare feet back and forth as they hung over the back seat of the carriage. Her mother sat next to her holding Anne’s new baby sister Jubilee with one hand and with her other hand she held Anne securely on the seat, so she didn’t fall off the carriage as it bumped up and down on the rocks of the dirt road.

Anne’s father sat up on the main seat of the carriage with the reins in his hands guiding the two, massive black horses forward down the road that would lead them to their new home. Anne brushed back her bright, long, reddish-brown, and curly hair from her face so that she could see the snow falling easier.

It had just begun to snow, and the air was starting to chill around them as the sun began to set on the horizon through the trees. This wasn’t the first snow of the winter, and it surely wouldn’t be the last. They were high atop a mountain pass now and were beginning to descend the other side into the small valley that cradled the town of Miracle Valley. The ground around them was already covered with a white sheet of glistening snow.

Anne couldn’t see over the luggage that was piled high on the back of the carriage, so she looked from side to side as the carriage rolled along into the deepening night. She loved the light from the setting sun that broke through the surrounding landscape of the mountain pass. She loved the deep green of the trees and she loved how they hugged the mountain side and pointed straight up to the sky. She loved the glimpses of forest creatures she saw here and there along their journey. Every now and then a hawk or an eagle would fly high overhead and Anne would wonder what it might be like to soar on the wind.

Anne loved the snow; it brought back so many wonderful memories from her earlier years. Her father would always take her outside to play in the first snow of each year. It had become a tradition of theirs and Anne loved it so. She would run back and forth as her father would chase her. She would pick up handfuls of the newly fallen snow and hurl them at him. Sometimes she would hit him, and he would let out a woeful groan as if mortally wounded. Then he would scoop her up and swing her down through the blanket of snow. Anne smiled at the fond memories.

Anne was very excited, although maybe a little nervous, about all the changes that her small family was going through now. She had just turned seven years old three weeks ago and life seemed to be moving along very quickly to her. With the arrival of her new sister her world had seemed to have grown so much larger. She helped her mother with the new baby as much as she was able. She learned to change the stinky clothes that served as diapers whenever the baby decided it was time to gift the family with her ‘smelly gifts’, as Anna had come to call them. Anne loved her new sister so very much and she thought surely everyone should have a baby sister just like her so they could know her joy as well.

Ever since her mother had given birth it seemed that her cheeks were always a bright pink color and she never stopped smiling. She glowed with joy. Anne often asked her mother about her own birth and loved hearing the stories of how she had been born in a clearing in the woods as her parents had been out on a hike when Anne decided to arrive unannounced into the world. Anne had been born ‘feet first’ into the world and that was Anne’s favorite part of the stories. Anne loved to be barefoot, much to her parents’ dismay.

Her father had been transferred to a new job in a new town far from the big city. He was a banker. Anne had left behind so many good friends, all of whom she had grown up with over the years. Her mother promised that she would make new ones in their new town. Anne wasn’t sure how easy that would be as she remembered what a struggle it had been to make the friends that she had made in the big city. She would miss her best friend Kate and Kate’s little brother Tommy. She spent most of her free time with them after school each day until her mother got off work at the bakery. Kate was seven like Anne and Tommy was five years old. Their mother stayed home every day to take care of her children so Anne would go to their house after school to play.

Her mother had told her over and over to be brave about the move. Her mother needed her help with her new baby sister. “Your sister needs you to be brave now, Anne.” Her mother would say as Anne sat on the packed trunks skulking and moaning about not wanting to move. “Big girls know how to go through changes in life and you’re a big girl now! You’re already seven!”

Somehow Anne knew her mother was right of course, but she wanted to be sad. She had said goodbye to Kate the night before they left riding in the carriage and they both cried for a good long while. Kate promised to write, and Anne promised the same. Life would not be the same without Kate but somehow Anne knew she had to be brave.

The sun sank below the horizon and her father stopped the carriage long enough to light the lanterns that stuck out on the four corners of the carriage swinging at the end of black iron bars. He also pulled a heavy travel blanket from one of the many trunks and wrapped it around his ‘three ladies’ in the back of the carriage. He tucked the edges of the blankets around each of them to make sure they were plenty warm for the long night ahead.

“Oh Anne!” Her father exclaimed when he saw her tiny bare feet exposed to the cold air. “Where are your shoes, young lady?”

He opened the carriage door and reached down and looked around the bottom of the carriage for her shoes. He found both quickly where they had been discarded.

“Oh papa, you know I don’t like to wear shoes at all.” Anne grumbled with a huge grin on her face. Anne loved to feel the ground and the open air on her feet. She had spent most of her childhood without shoes on and was always getting scolded for taking them off.

Her father gave her his usual disapproving look and then put each of her tiny shoes back onto her feet. He knew full well that she would take them off again shortly, but he had to try. The feeling of the cold fabric of the shoes on her feet made her squirm. Anne felt so confined when she wore shoes. He tucked her small feet under the heavy blanket.

“There you go.” He said, smiling.

“Oh, Richard, you know she will just take them off again dear.” Her mother said with a sigh. “Let’s get going again now, please.”

Anne was grateful for the warmth of the heavy blanket even if it almost swallowed her whole. Her head stuck out of it enough for her to still see the dark of the night falling around them and the light snow that continued to fall. She could see the distant lights of their new town in the valley below. Her father jumped back into the driver’s seat and set the horses back in motion. The carriage rolled on bumping and jolting harshly as it went. He loved to drive the carriage with his family in tow. He spent a great deal of time spoiling the two massive horses and they listen well to his clicks and commands.

“Not long now, Lovie!” Richard yelled back to his wife over his shoulder.

“You said that hours ago!” Her mother shouted back, giving Anne a quick sideways smile. Little Jubilee stirred a bit in her mother’s arms but continued to sleep deeply. Anne returned her thoughts to the life she had left in the big city and to thoughts of her new home.

“What would this new town be like? What will our new house be like? Will there be any children my age to play with?” She wondered to herself. “Would it take her long to make a good friend like Kate? Would there be any girls her age in her new town?” So many questions ran through her head.

The night deepened around the small family as the carriage traveled ever forward pulled gracefully by the two huge black horses. The stars came out and shone brightly in this other world of empty dirt roads and wild fields with no manmade light to hide them. The whole world seemed still and quiet except for the sound of the carriage and the horse’s hoofbeats. Anne’s mother had always been a quiet woman and as Anne looked up at her she knew that her mother was lost in thought and very close to falling asleep now. Her mother looked down at her and brushed some hair off her face then began to sing, “Oh, Oh, here we go again, Oh, Oh, we are off to a new land, Oh, Oh, where will we be when we arrive, Oh, Oh, I know home is where we’ll be.” Anne listened to the gentle words of her mother’s song and suddenly felt very sleepy herself. She curled up against her mother’s arm and slowly drifted off to sleep and began to dream of a new life in a new town in a new country far away from the big city…

---

Part 38 on Amazon.com

---

You can sign up to receive e-mails each time I post to this blog. It’s a great way to stay connected with what God is doing through the ministry He has given me:

---

I am living by faith in God while I write this book series. If you’d like to give through prayer or financial support you can discover how to do that here:

Support The Ministry

---

---